Bloomberg News

China Fighter-Maker Head Dies Amid First At-Sea Landing

The landing marked the debut of the J-15 as the nation’s first generation multipurpose carrier-borne fighter jet. Source: AFP/GettyImages

Luo Yang, who headed China’s
fighter-jet building program as chairman and president of
Shenyang Aircraft Corp., died yesterday during landing tests for
the nation’s first aircraft carrier.

Luo, 51, had a heart attack while helping oversee the
tests, Shenyang Aircraft’s parent, state-controlled Aviation
Industry Corp. of China, said today in an e-mailed statement.

A J-15 fighter, built by Shenyang Aircraft, successfully
landed on the carrier Liaoning over the weekend, the first time
a Chinese aircraft has landed at sea, according to the official
Xinhua News Agency. The Liaoning, named after a Chinese
province, was commissioned in September.

The landing marked the debut of the J-15 as the nation’s
first generation multipurpose carrier-borne fighter jet, Xinhua
said. Shenyang Aircraft, dubbed the “cradle of China’s fighter
aircraft,” has built several thousand fighter jets over past 50
years, according to its website.

Luo, a Shenyang native, devoted more than three decades to
developing Chinese aviation, according to the statement. He held
a master’s degree in aircraft design from Beihang University,
previously known as Beijing University of Aeronautics and
Astronautics, according to the statement.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Jasmine Wang in Hong Kong at
Jwang513@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Neil Denslow at
ndenslow@bloomberg.net